Montreal cops taking lie-detector tests following mole scandal
MARC PIGEON, QMI AGENCY
FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2013 04:01 PM EDT | UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2013 04:10 PM EDT
MONTREAL - Montreal police detectives have submitted to lie-detector tests after a former biker investigator was charged with selling information from ongoing investigations to the Hells Angels.
A SWAT team arrested Benoit Roberge last weekend in the presence of a Hells member. A source told QMI Agency that Roberge's arrest has stoked suspicion within the anti-biker unit where he worked for 11 years. He left the unit in August.
Police confirm that more officers could be arrested after information from ongoing biker investigations was allegedly sold for $50,000 per transaction.
Several of Roberge's former colleagues willingly submitted to polygraph tests in an attempt to clear their names, the source said.
Some officers even paid for the tests out of their own pockets, the source added.
Detectives at the provincial police force were also asked to take lie-detector tests, QMI has learned.
Montreal police Chief Marc Parent said polygraph tests can be a useful tool to stop damaging leaks.
"We had already used polygraph tests on some of our squads," he told a news conference earlier this week. "Now we must see how we can expand them to a larger scale."
He urged law-enforcement agencies across Canada to tighten their internal protocols in the wake of the embarrassing security breach.
"I've decided to make this...a national issue," Parent said. "The events that we're going through as a police force, we can make it into a teachable moment to mobilize people to improve the way we do things."
— With files from Eric Thibault
